THE NET-ZERO BLOG
Climate policy analysis and updates from Sacramento
Data analysis of cap-and-trade program investments
California’s cap-and-trade program generates roughly $7-8 billion per year, of which $2-3 billion is rebated to electricity customers in the form of the California Climate Credit while $4-5 billion is deposited into the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to support the state’s climate goals. As legislators contemplate cap-and-trade reauthorization, we analyze the latest program investment data (May 2024).
California advances toward climate goals: the $39 billion budget
The Legislature and Governor Newsom recently delivered a game-changing $39 billion climate budget and an important set of new policies to propel California towards its climate goals. In this blog post – the first of a three-part series – we review the central piece to the state’s recent actions: the $39 billion climate budget.
Op-ed: Maximizing the impact of a history-making federal clean energy investment program
Op-ed announcement: A recent op-ed in The Hill describes a novel approach to identifying and prioritizing policy and investment actions in order to achieve ambitious climate targets.
Publication: Defining the value of carbon capture, utilization and storage for a low-carbon future
Carbon capture, utilization and storage is identified in a number of integrated assessment models (IAMs) as an available mitigation option to support the global energy transition. Despite this, there continues to be dissent and misinformation in some quarters regarding the role CCUS can or should play in a low-carbon future. This publication from the International Energy Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Technology Collaboration Programme, reviews recent literature from sector-specific techno-economic models, global and regional IAMs, and social studies to assess the value of CCUS. This publication also introduces a decision framework to help policymakers screen the relative competitiveness of CCUS and applies this framework across case studies in the US, UK, Indonesia, Australia and Japan.
Publication: Bridging capital discipline and energy scenarios
Modeled energy scenarios, such as those prepared by the IPCC's Working Group III, are the main analytical tools relied upon to inform climate change policies at global and national scales. It is important, then, that scenarios are feasible – meaning the modeled sequence of actions (i.e., progressive expansion in clean electricity, fuels, materials, etc.) resembles what could be delivered in reality. To the extent there is a disconnect, adopted policies may fail to assure mitigation targets. This publication in Energy & Environmental Science highlights one important such disconnect related to asset mobilization. That is, the difference between the way models assume assets are mobilized, compared to the approach exhibited by risk-taking commercial enterprises. Bridging this fault-line is essential to reduce the risk of target shortfall. We describe a conceptual approach to do so, termed ‘reverse-engineering’, and highlight the value of cultivating a new community of applied researchers working with practitioners to advance the reverse-engineering technique.
Publication: The value of CCUS in transitions to net-zero emissions
Global-scale energy system models find that carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is needed to achieve deep decarbonization and limit anthropogenic global warming. Yet, there is some dissent among academics, businesses, and policymakers regarding the role that CCUS can or should play in a low-carbon future. This publication from the Electricity Journal explores the value that CCUS provides in time-bound, economy-wide transitions to net-zero emissions and considers what it would take to assure CCUS as a real option for commercial deployment.